Fathers and Grandfathers knives

[eveled]

From my fathers father dummy m1 garand stripper, 2 trench art 50 cal cartridges, and a 1 yen coin. He was in the Navy and saw action in China just before ww2.

His USN FORK. Sorry no knife.

 

[eveled]

My paternal Grandfathers Frontier 2 blade knife I found rusted shut in a tackle box my grandmother threw away.

My great grandfather’s razor, also saved from the trash along with his ww1 uniform.

 

[jnaught]

My grandpa’s old Kabar and his much-used stone. He was a dairy farmer and hardworking man. I didn’t know how much he appreciated a sharp knife till these came my way after he passed. He had a box of knives he had used and sharpened till there wasn’t much using left in them. I wished I had known and could have talked knives and sharpening with him, but at least I got these.

 

[Chief]

C CHNeal have never before posted about my dad's boyhood knife. With Father's Day approaching, this thread inspired me to dig it out of the safe and pose it with the only pocketknife he carried.

My dad was the youngest of three boys born in 1927 at home in rural East Texas. My grandfather Ferguson was blinded in one eye at birth when they had to use forceps to assist. How poor were they? My dad got his first pair of shoes, hand me downs from his older brother, when he went to first grade. Got an eighth grade education and with the assistance of his parents lied about his age to enter the Navy during WWII. As farmers (if they didn't grow it, they didn't eat), the older men all had a pocketknife, it was an necessary tool. When my dad was young there was no money for anything frivolous like a pocketknife, so his Uncle Eldon made this wooden slipjoint for my Dad sometime in the early 1930s. 85 plus years old, is a wonder it survives to this day. As a little boy I wanted to play with it sooo bad, but it was precious to my Dad and he was afraid I would break it ... so it remained in the cabinet above the stove where I couldn't reach. Grain appears to be pine. Dad worked as a Brakeman / Conductor on the Rock Island Railroad, his XX stockman has traveled well over a million miles. Am the caretaker of several family heirlooms, hope they don't get lost or sold. They may just look like cheap junk, but these are precious to me.

Case XX pile side scale was broken off when my Dad used it as a hammer. Case rightfully rejected a warranty claim so he wrote his name on the liner and filled it in with epoxy.

 

[CHNeal]

Chief
I am honored that you shared that story with us all. I am so very happy for you that you have such a treasure to pass down to keep the memory of those hard working men alive.
Thank you
Clay

 

[Mitt]

The top two are my paternal grandfather's knives. During the war he was Coxswain on USS Pennsylvania and after that he worked for Ling-Temco-Vought. While at LTV was a test engineer and worked on aircraft like the F8 Crusader and A7 Corsair II. He was always proud to have work on those Navy jets. I would hear stories on how he would do testing, like lifting them with crane and dropping them on sheets of metal to simulate the stress of landing on an aircraft carrier. He made the fixed blade while performing testing on the project he was most proud of, the space shuttle. The steel is from that testing and the scales are 12 layer compressed wood, each layer was originally an inch thick. I'm not sure when he picked up the Japanese made magnum or have any info on it, but the bone has some amazing color.

The Buck was my maternal grandfather's. He was a cook in the army and was in Italy, France and Germany during the war. Growing up in the southern Oklahoma during the dust bowl he couldn't stand seeing people go hungry so he would get food to the locals. I gave him the Buck in the early 90's after he told me the knife he carried (his dad's) was just worn out. I don't know if it was that he loved it or was just proud to have, but he carried it daily from that day on.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

M Mitt What a great story! That Buck 703 is certainly well used, just as it was intended to be.

 

[eveled]

M Mitt awesome history there. I’m fascinated by the compressed wood, but I can’t help but think someday you will here a strange noise from the other room. When you check what it was you will find a knife with a twelve inch thick handle. Lol.

 

[Mitt]

M Mitt awesome history there. I’m fascinated by the compressed wood, but I can’t help but think someday you will here a strange noise from the other room. When you check what it was you will find a knife with a twelve inch thick handle. Lol.

It’s some tough stuff. He told me he went through two bits trying to shape it. The last time I heard a strange noise from the other room I had the knife on display. The knife had fallen from a ledge and landed point down stuck in a dresser.

 

[Trvr]

Fitting for today. I originally took this picture to post an introduction to the forum but I found this thread instead.
My Schrade 34ot along with a Colonial that my dad gave me and some kind of German peanut that belonged to my grandfather.

*edited to try and get the photo to show up*

 

[btb01]

Today seems like a good day to finally add a few things to this thread.

This first one has to be the knife I’ve owned the longest, since I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. It wasn’t technically my dad’s knife, but he gave it to me and taught me how to use it. RA’s was sort of like Southern Baptist Boy Scouts, and my dad was really involved as a counselor when my brother and I were young.

Here’s a knife that actually belonged to my dad. He usually had some sort of SAK or Leatherman with him. I don’t know what this model was called (the Pocket Brick?), but it’s the sort of thing he liked.

This one belonged to my maternal grandfather, and was actually the knife that first brought me to BladeForums. The only stamp is “MADE IN USA,” but I think we determined it was likely made by Camillus/CAMCO, and was possibly sold as a Craftsman-branded knife (any blade etch it may have had is long gone).

Hopefully this last one is acceptable for this thread. It’s an old Imperial fixed blade that we found in my great-grandmother’s old tackle box. It was in pretty rough shape rust-wise, but looks like it may have only ever been sharpened a couple times. Lots of life left in this one!

 

[veitsi_poika]

I'm sorry I don't know the source of this chart. I try to save files to my computer for reference whenever I come across them.

Hi r8shell... I happen to spot this chart in my Price & Zalesky 15th Edition of "Price Guide to Collector Knives" a little while ago So now you can update your file name on your computer

 

[r8shell]

Hi r8shell... I happen to spot this chart in my Price & Zalesky 15th Edition of "Price Guide to Collector Knives" a little while ago So now you can update your file name on your computer

Thanks!

 

[veitsi_poika]

My Dad always had a knife for trapping and a knife for hunting... The first pic below is his trapping knife with a receipt for beaver and otter pelts for $570 in 1966; that would buy a lot of Black Label beer back then

His hunting knife was a beat up old Marble's Ideal... I don't know what happened to it after he died but I scoured for more than a year to find one at a local shop that reminded me of it. The top knife in this Marble's lineup is as close as I could find to his

 

[Bigfattyt]

I don't think I have ever shared this one before. It is probably my most special knife that my dad owned. It is a well-loved Buck 110. Not sure the story behind this one, if he is responsible for the "sharpening" or what. It is as old as I am though, and it came with a nice handmade sheath.

View attachment 1359562

My grandfather was not shy about over sharpening tools.

I remember once, I found an old hatched/checkered hammer head roofing style hatchet on grandpa's farm. It was stuck in a tree, for who knows how long.

Rusty and worn. Grandpa told me to keep it. He sharpened the head for me. I expected it to take some time on a whetstone. He just fired up bis bench grinder, hit both sides with the wire wheel, then put an edge back on it with two passes on the stone side of the grinder. Handed it back to me and I immediately burned my thumb checking the edge.

I can't imagine laying into one of my cutting tools with the stone bench grinder!!

Even my machetes only see a belt sander with care not to put heat into the edges, and only after dirt work that dings the edges.

 

[Old Hunter]

Bigfattyt An enduring memory I have of my Pop was of him sharpening a Klein wire-skinning knife on the bench grinder in his dark and dank warehouse. The sparks in the dim light looked like a stream coming from a sparkler and the smell of burnt metal would hang in the dank air. Good memory, even if not the good way to sharpen a knife. OH

 

[DadsCollection]

My Dad's old skinning, fishing, whatever sheath knife he gave me when I was a kid before he passed. The tang is marked Solingen on one side and 50 on the other you can barely make out Original Buffalo Skinner on the blade. It was old when I got it and that over 50 years ago.

t

Hi, I have the same knife. It was my dad’s. Can you tell me anything more about it or anywhere I could look to find out? Thank you.

 

[Justin T.]

Do favorite uncles count? Here is my story:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/question-about-case-small-stockman-patterns.1704551/

 

[RayTL]

My grandfather Giuseppe's knife, brought over from Sicily ca.1900!!
Shown with a Barlow for sizing! He started his living as a bricklayer, but fed up with discrimination against Sicilian immigrants, started up an eventually, very successful, wholesale grocery business!! The last picture is a promotional knife (Camillus/Syracuse) from the Family company!!View attachment 1355740 View attachment 1355741 View attachment 1355742

Revisiting this thread … looks some Beerlow inspiration…

 

[Jolipapa]

That ancient Opinel makes me smile. Worn, but carefully sharpened over the years. It’s obvious the owner valued that knife. You don’t bother personalizing a knife otherwise.

I’ve enjoyed reading your stories. Thanks all.

I wonder if any of our children or grandchildren will have similar memories of us and our knives.

I realize I did not answer you.
The story is that after WWII my Grand'Pa worked as fort des Halles (no translation found). he was unloading meat lorries at the Parisian Halles. But he caught tuberculosis and had to go in a sanatorium for months. He made like soldiers awaiting for the end of military service, a "notch" each month before the end, until they receive the "quille" (skittle).
At work he used the knife cutting heavy ropes, or textile in which beef carcass were enclosed before unloading (hence the "fort" name ) and cutting the butcher's choice he brought home (onglet, hampe, araignée).
He was dressed more like the man standing with the white apron, with a white round cap and a white cloth covering the shoulder and neck the side he used to lift and wear the meat.
Later he worked as meat clerk, a much less tiring work. I spent a few night with him during holidays when I was a teen-ager, waiting in a bistro eating an onion soup, with all the night people then living and working in Paris' belly !
The large sombrero-like hat was for those working in the vegetable s/flowers dept, just folklore at the end.